When I was a little girl, my sisters and I would wake up on December 6 to the happy surprise of small gifts left to us by St. Nicholas, set upon the table by our places at breakfast. Not on the grand scale of Christmas, just a small gift and some candy, but that was enough to set a start the day off on a happy note. I recall the time we each got a 45 rpm record; mine was Led Zepplin's "Immigrant Song" much to the subsequent dismay to my parents when they heard it. This tradition was a carry over from the Old Country; most of our classmates didn't know what St. Nicholas Day was. As a parent, I've continued to carry on the custom, placing candy and small gifts in some wooden shoes I bought in the Netherlands. It's a charming tradition.
St. Nicholas, a 4th century bishop of Myra, is the patron saint of children. His father left him a fortune which he used to help poor children, and he often threw gifts anonymously into the windows of their homes. Legends tell of ways he rescued the young from dire fates and even death, bringing them back to life! No wonder he's a very popular saint, and countries that claim his patronage include Russia, Greece, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sicily, and Switzerland.
Some religious historians and folklorists claim there is no valid evidence to indicate that St. Nicholas ever actually existed, but that, like many saints, his life story was based on those of pagan gods. He has associations with the Greek sea god Poseidon, to whom in the Athenian calendar this entire month is dedicated to. When the church created the persona of St. Nicholas, they adopted Poseidon's title "the Sailor" and various sea port temples of the sea god became shrines to St. Nicholas. Legends tell us that the saint halted a storm at sea in order to save three drowning sailors, and during a famine he procured some grain from a ship passing through Myra. Thus he became patron saint of sailors. He kept some of the grain and baked the rest in the shape of a man (and so became a patron saint of bakers). Gingerbread men, especially the Speculatius, are baked for his feast day December 6, and throughout the Yule season. A speculatius ("image") is a gingerbread figure, originally of a bishop, a "mirror image" (in Latin, speculum means mirror) pressed into a wooden mold and then turned to bake in the oven. These I think are available for purchase at the SCA's Kris Kinder markets, also commercially throughout the year, in the shape of a windmill. Be sure to leave some cookies out for Santa and the other night riding Yuletide gift bringers!
Tarot cards: King of Cups, and in the Tarot of the Saints, the Magician
